10 - 12 October 2002

UNION OF EUROPEAN FORESTERS
Minutes of the Governing Council Meeting held in
Poznan, Poland, 10 – 12 October, 2002
_______________________________
A Seminar entitled “Timber Market in Europe : Problems, Causes and Concerns”
was held the first day of the Governing Council Meeting (GCM).
After the opening of the Seminar by the President of UEF and the General Director
of the Forest Service of Poland the key-note speakers Messrs W. Strykowski and
T. Wojcik proceeded with their presentations. Then representatives of several
Member-Organizations (MOs) presented and analysed the Timber Market in their
countries. The Agenda of the Seminar is herewith attached as Appendix I.
The second day 11th October, 2002 a very interesting and fruitful field trip has
been organized by the Divisional Director of Forest of the District of Poznan. We
had the opportunity to see very good stands of oaks, the most modern seed
extraction plant in Poland, the BIADKI flooring factory and to visit the palace of
Rogalin, the surrounding large park with the famous several hundred years old
oaks and the Centre of Forest Culture in Goluchow.
The GCM took place on the 12th of October 2002.
Present
The Presidency Members (PMs) and delegates from 12 MOs attended the GCM.
A detailed list of participants is attached as Appendix II.
A g e n d a
1. Opening of the Meeting
2. Adoption of the Agenda
3. Application of the Society of Irish Foresters for Membership
4. Reviewing of the specific tasks of the Members of the Presidency
5. EU matters and the Brussels Committee, status of the contacts/
representation of the Union in the European Union.
6. Questionnaires
a) Co-operation with EU Members
b) Educational matters
c) Public Relations
7. Updating of the UEF Home page and other actions concerning
information
8. Budget, financial matters and the auditing of the accounts
9. Publication of UEF Constitution
10. Working Plan for 2002/2003
11. Next Presidency Meeting and Governing Council Meeting
12. Miscellaneous
1. Opening of the Meeting
President P. Paschalis welcomed very warmly the delegates of the UEF MOs and
the PMs attending the GCM in Poznan. He expressed his gratitude and thanks to
the Polish colleagues Members of SITLiD for organizing the GCM in Poland.
2. Adoption of the Agenda
The agenda has been approved and the GCM proceeded with the discussion of
the items .
3. Application of the Society of Irish Foresters for Membership.
The President informed the Meeting that the Society of Irish Foresters (SIF)
applied for membership of the UEF, in October 2001.
The Presidency had examined and accepted the application of SIF and invited the
representatives of SIF to the GCM. The application of SIF has been unanimously
approved by the participants.
Mr. Tony Mannion, Technical Director of SIF addressed the Meeting and
expressed on behalf of the Irish Foresters his thanks and gratitude to the UEF for
accepting his Society as a member and he assured that the SIF will be an active
member of the UEF.
4. Reviewing of the specific tasks of the Members of the Presidency
The Secretary made an overview of the Action Plan approved by the last
Congress in Romania and informed the meeting about the specific tasks allocated
to the PMs, in order to fulfill it. (See pages 2-4 of the Minutes of PM in Nicosia,
December, 2001, which have been circulated).
Then the President asked the PMs to inform the participants about the progress of
their work.
5. EU matters and the Brussels Committee status of the
contacts/representation of the UEF in the EU
Vice-President Mr. H. Nystrand, presented in detailed the work done by the
Brussels Committee. He said that the Committee had a series of meetings with
representatives of the Parliament, Commission and Organisations in Brussels
during the period 6-9th of April, 2002. (See relevant Report, Appendix III).
The following conclusions could be drawn after the contacts :
• UEF is known in the European Union
• UEF should have one or several position papers for the EU
• UEF should cooperate in position making to be a part in alliances
• UEF has limited possibilities to be active in the EU
After a long and fruitful discussion it was agreed that out of the list of current
matters in EU level the most important for UEF are :
• EU Forest Strategy and
• Enlargement of the EU
Therefore the Presidency will prepare a position paper on EU Forest Strategy,
which has to deal with the Enlargement too. The position paper will be circulated
to MOs beginning of next year for comments, before submission to EU.
H. Nystrand informed also the participants on the following :
• EU Committees and Workgroups
• Bodies active in Brussels
• Other Groups and Fora in Europe and globally.
Due to financial reasons, he said, UEF has to concentrate mainly on the following
activities, which are financed by EU :
• Advisory Committee on Forestry and Forestry Based Industries
• Advisory Committee on Forestry and Cork
H. Nystrand concluded that it would be for the benefit of UEF if the Committee
could be at least once a year in Brussels
The GCM has agreed that the presentation of UEF in EU and other international
Bodies and Fora is very satisfactory, despite the limited budget of the Union.
6. Questionnaires
The President said that a series of questionnaires, covering various subjects, such
as, contacts between MOs, education, public relations etc. has been prepared by
the Presidency and sent to the MOs for completion.
(a) Cooperation with UEF Members
Vice-President Mr. M. Diemer informed the meeting that the response of the MOs
to the Questionnaires was very poor and unfortunately only six organizations had
replied. (See relevant report Appendix IV). Therefore he asked the MOs to
become more active and to complete and return the questionnaires, as soon as
possible. The Questionnaires will be put on the Homepage.
M. Diemer said that he had met representatives of the MO of Luxembourg and the
Austrian Organisation. He is also going to get in contact with the Hungarian
Organisation. He believes that there is a good chance, that the Austrian
Organisation will become a member of UEF in the future.
The President informed the meeting that SITLiD has invited Foresters´
Organizations from Belarus, Chech-Republic, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and
Slovakia to attend the GCM, but unfortunately they couldn’t be present due to
various reasons. Invitations have been also sent to sleeping members, i.e.
Albania, Austria, Greece and Italy but without response.
H. Nystrand said that he had a meeting with the President of Foresters Association
of Norway and he invited him to attend the GCM as observer, but he got no
answer.
b) Educational matters
M. Diemer presented the results of his questionnaire on education, saying that
only few MOs had responded with concrete offers for exchange of forest trainees
and students. Therefore no progress could be made.
Following discussion it was decided that UEF has to try to secure funds for training
from the EU and to examine further the possibility of participating in the European
Programmes Leonardo da Vici and Socrates. It was also agreed that the
exchange of visits between the MOs are very helpful and can contribute
significantly to education.
A detailed and comprehensive report covering (a) and (b) above is attached as
Appendix IV.
c) Public Relations
Vice-President Mr. N. Christiansen said that he couldn’t proceed satisfactorily with
the building up of public relations, due to the limited response to his questionnaire.
He will continue his efforts and urged the MOs to cooperate for the fulfillment of
this task.
7. Updating of the UEF Homepage and other actions concerning information,
N. Christiansen presented the new updated edition of the Homepage prepared by
the Webmaster Mr. St. Brysting.
The following decisions have been taken after a long discussion.
• The work done on Homepage was good.
• t is an ongoing process, therefore proposals and suggestions have to be
• made to the Webmaster, as soon as possible.
• The new Homepage will be ready beginning of the year 2003.
• The output of the GCM and Seminar to be put on the Homepage
8. Budget, financial matters and the auditing of the accounts
The Treasurer Mr. A. Grochowski presented his financial report for the period June
2001 – September 2002. The report is attached as Appendix V.
The balance at the end of the period was 39.245 Euro.
The proposed budget for the year 2003 amounts to 24.800 Euro.
President of CONSILVA Mr. M. Stoicescu made a written proposal to the GCM
regarding the auditing of the accounts. (See Appendix VI). He proposed that the
auditors have to meet for 3 days to check the accounts.
After a discussion on the above issues it was decided :
• Changes in the number of the members of the MOs can be only accepted if
they would be reported a year in advance.
• To try to get assistance from the EU to finance the next GCM in Cyprus.
• The Treasurer was kindly asked to handle the matter.
• The Treasurer will send authorized copies of the accounts to the Auditors
for checking. The copies have to be authorized by Vice-Presidents H.
Nystrand and M. Diemer.
9. Publication of UEF Constitution
The Secretary informed the GCM that the New Constitution of UEF had been
published in Cyprus at the cost of 1.960 Euro for 1.000 copies. About 200 copies
have been distributed to the delegates and if anybody likes to have more copies
has to contact him. UEF got also the electronic version of the Constitution and
reserved all the rights.
10. Working Plan for 2002/2003
The priorities set for the Working Plan for 2002/2003 are the following :
• Preparation of position papers for EU
• Better contact with old and new potential members of UEF
• The Homepage will cover also educational matters and the activities of the Brussels
Committee
• To add all the necessary information to the Web page.
• To present the output of the Seminar and the GCM.
• To prepare application to EU for financing UEF activities
• To promote UEF by publishing articles in magazines and journals in various countries.
11. Next Presidency Meeting and Governing Council Meeting
The next PM will take place in Ireland in May 2003.
The next GCM will be organised by the MOs of Cyprus in the period of 22-26
October, 2003.
Several proposals for the theme of the Seminar have been made i.e. Forest
Recreation, New EU Forest Strategy, Forest Organisation in the countries of the
MOs. The Presidency will study the matter further in cooperation with the
organizing MOs.
12. Miscellaneous
The delegate of DSL Mr. Henrik Bach informed the meeting that DSL celebrates
its 90th Anniversary. Ten active foresters, he said, met in Copenhagen 90 years
ago and created DSL. The President congratulated DSL on behalf of the
participants. An official letter will be addressed by the President to DSL too.